Anniversaries

Anniversaries

Births: Hubert Robert, painter, 1733; William Sturgeon, electrical engineer, 1783; Gerard de Nerval (Gerard Labrunie), poet and writer, 1808; Wilhelm Richard Wagner, composer, 1813; Alexander Ernst Fesca, pianist and composer, 1820; Felix-Joseph Auguste Bracquemond, painter and engraver, 1833; Fritz Karl Hermann von Uhde, painter, 1848; Sir Aston Webb, architect, 1849; Emile Sauret, violinist and composer, 1852; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, novelist, 1859; Daniel Francois Malan, politician, 1874; Warwick Windridge Armstrong, cricketer, 1879; Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, mining magnate, 1880; Giacomo Matteotti, politician, 1885; Thomas Edward Neil Driberg, Baron Bradwell, politician and journalist, 1905; Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, actor and director, 1907. Deaths: Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor, 337; Francesco Guicciardini, historian and diplomat, 1540; Maria Edgeworth, novelist, 1849; Jacques-Nicolas Augustin Thierry, historian, 1856; Edward Hodges Baily, sculptor, 1867; Julius Plucker, mathematician and physicist, 1868; Alessandro Francesco Manzoni, poet, 1873; Victor-Marie Hugo, author, 1885; Gaetano Bresci, assassin of King Umberto I, committed suicide while in prison 1901; Sir John Denton Pinkstone French, first Earl of Ypres, soldier, 1925; Augusta, Lady Gregory, poet, playwright and theatre director, 1932; Ernst Toller, revolutionary, playwright and poet, 1939; James Langston Hughes, poet, 1967; Cecil Day Lewis, poet and author, 1972; Rajiv Gandhi, former Indian prime minister, assassinated 1991. On this day: Louis VIII of France invaded England, landing at Stonor, 1216; the Lancastrians defeated the Yorkists at the Battle of St Albans, 1455; the title ''baronet'' was created when James I ennobled 18 men, 1611; the US vessel Savannah, powered by steam and sail, crossed the Atlantic from West to East, 1819; the first parliament of New South Wales was opened, 1856; ''Great Paul'', a new bell for St Paul's Cathedral, arrived in London, 1882; the Blackwall Tunnel under the Thames was officially opened, 1897; the Strand Theatre, London, opened, 1905; Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence, his wife Emmeline and Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, suffragists, were sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, 1912; Italy joined the Allies, 1915; after a troop train collided with a passenger train at Quintin's Hill, near Gretna Green, 227 people were killed and over 200 injured, 1915; the first London production of the musical show Going Up was presented, 1918; the Italian-German alliance was signed in Berlin, 1939; the battle for the German battleship Bismarck started, 1941; the Battle of Anzio started, 1944; the Organisation of African Unity was formed in Addis Ababa, 1963; Goya's painting of the Duke of Wellington, which had been stolen from the National Portrait Gallery in 1961, was found in a Birmingham railway carriage, 1965; fire swept a large department store in Brussels, killing 300 people, 1967; Ceylon changed its named to Sri Lanka and became a republic, 1972; an earthquake lasting 20 seconds destroyed the small town of Bingol, in Turkey, when over 1,000 people died, 1972. Today is the Feast Day of St Aigulf of Ayoul or Bourges, Saints Castus and Aemilius, St Helen of Caernarvon, St Humility, St Joachima de Mas, St Julia of Corsica, St Quiteria, St Rita (Margarita) of Cascia and St Romanus.